Looking beyond pasta and pizzas: examining personal and historical nostalgia as travel motives

Purpose This paper aims to examine how nostalgia influences travel attitudes and intentions of tourist destination among travellers with Italian heritage. Perceived travel risks as a moderating role between the relationships between personal and historical nostalgia and travel attitudes are also examined. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered mail survey was used, targeting Australians of Italian heritage, to investigate the influence of nostalgia on attitudes and intentions to visit Italy as a tourist destination. A total of 218 usable responses were used for analysis. Exploratory factor analysis was utilised to assess the dimensionality of the constructs, and regression analysis was used to test the hypothesised relationships in the research model. Findings On analysis of the data collected through a mail survey, results showed that only personal nostalgia was found to exert a positive influence upon travel attitudes which in turn was positively related to travel intention toward Italy. Perceived travel risk factors did not moderate the relationship between personal nostalgia and travel attitudes. However, a negative relationship was found between perceived travel risk and travel intentions towards Italy. Practical implications The findings provide further validity to the personal and historical nostalgia scales as a means of understanding motivations to visit a tourist destination. Such findings are significant in adding destination managers and policymakers in developing marketing executions and policies that seek to capitalise on the nostalgic sentiments of the target segments. This study further contributes to the literature on perceived travel risks by highlighting its moderating effect on nostalgic motivations and travel attitudes. Originality/value This study aimed to enrich the theoretical base of the tourism discipline by reviewing the significance of personal and historical nostalgia as travel motives and their impact upon a tourist’s travel attitudes and intentions. It also examines the moderating role of perceived travel risks in an empirical model. Further, the current study is the first of its kind to empirically examine personal and historical nostalgia within a leisure travel context.